St. Mark's Lutheran Church

Watertown, WI

7/18/99

Pastor Michael Jensen

Sermon Series: Countdown to the Millennium

St. Matthew 24:36-42

[36] "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. [37] As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. [38] For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; [39] and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. [40] Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. [41] Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. [42] "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

Theme - The MASTER CALENDAR

I. God's Got His Marked

II. How About You?

Introduction

We're all quite familiar with calendars. After all, we've got them everywhere and we live by them. We've got them everywhere: on our refrigerators, on our desks at work, on our computers, in our purses and in our coat pockets.

And we constantly need to look at them to know where we're suppose to be and when we're suppose to be there. Yet, while you have your own personal calendar or schedule, most of also are working off of some sort of a master calendar.

In your home that master calendar is most likely on your refrigerator being held up by magnets. Husbands and wives and moms and dads have to watch those master calendars closely, so that you know when Jimmy has ball practice . . . when Susie has swimming lessons . . . when Steve has piano lessons . . . when is the doctor's appointment . . . when is the dentist appointment . . . and when the dog has to go the vet.

At work you also have master calendars listing the work schedule, the date of big meeting or appointment or the due date for a special project.

Why, even at St. Mark's we have a master calendar which tells us who's using the church, parish center or school at any given time. It also helps us make sure that we are where we're suppose to be at the right time.

I. God's Got His Marked

So we all work of master calendars, but we're not the only ones with a master calendar. Someone else has a master calendar. The Master has a master calendar. God the Father has a master calendar that He works off of.

Now God is the One who created time, but even before He created time . . . already way back in eternity He had time laid out before Him and He began to lay out His master calendar.

•Already back in eternity He determined the first day on the master calendar, the day on which He would say, "Let there be . . ." and call matter into existence out of nothing.
•Already back in eternity, He look at the first week on His master calendar and said, "Right there. On the sixth day I'm going to say "Let us make man in our own image. That's the day I'm going to create Adam and Eve."
•And in eternity, when He looked at His master calendar, He already knew the exact day on which Adam and Eve would, of their own free choosing, rebel against Him, forsake His love and issue sin into this world. And already in eternity, with a heavy heart marked down the date of the Fall into Sin.
•Already in eternity God knew when the wickedness of mankind would bring about the universal flood. And God marked down the exact day He would send the floodgates would be opened up: the sixth hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month.
•And He also marked down the exact day He would call Abraham to be the father of all believers and the exact day He would ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and the exact day He would lead the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt.

Then, as He looked over His master calendar, He also marked out a very special time in history; He marked out 33 ½ years as the very special time when His Son, Jesus Christ would walk this earth as our Savior. He marked down the day on which the fullness of time would have arrived and Jesus would be born of a woman, born under law to redeem all of us who are under the law. And in eternity He also marked on that master calendar the exact day and moment His Son would die on Calvary and the exact day of His glorious resurrection.

Yet, God tells us that Christ's life is not the only life He marked down on the master calendar. The book of Acts tells us that God determined the exact times and places for each individual. That means that already in eternity God marked down the exact day you would be born. You are that special to Him. In fact, you are so special to Him that He also marked down the very day that He would make you His child through Holy Baptism. And, we also know that He already has marked on His master calendar the exact day He will make good on the promises He made to you at your baptism; He has marked down the day He will call you from this life to heaven.

Then there's another day that God has marked on His master calendar: the very last day of the master calendar. That's the day Jesus is speaking about in our Gospel lesson for today. He says that there's going to come a day when there will be no more tomorrow. And He tells us that although only God knows when the last day will come, it most certainly will come.

Now many people are mistaken about the last day.

•Some mistakenly think that there is no God who made all things and created time. They think time has always existed and it's just going to keep on going and going. They think that there will always be another tomorrow.

Yet they are wrong. For there is a God who has created time, who laid out a master calendar with a first day on which He began time and with a last day which will certainly come. Just like the people of Noah's time, these people run around saying, "Peace and safety. There's no end in sight." And just like the people of Noah's time, boy, are they going to be surprised when the end comes.

•Some others mistakenly think that there may be a God, but that He's not that interested in what's going on down here on earth. They think that people are born by chance and die by chance. They think there's no master calendar.

But, there are wrong and they too will be surprise.

•Still others think that they can actually pinpoint the date when Jesus Christ will return. Lately we've been hearing a lot about this as we near the year 2000. We hear prediction after prediction about when Jesus is going to return. Some say December of 99. Others say January of 2000 or sometime during 2000.

But, these people are also sadly mistaken.

1) First they are sadly mistaken, because their master calendar is off. It has not been 2000 years since the birth of Jesus, because Jesus was most likely born in 6 or 5 B.C. The calendar is off. So, if Jesus was going to return 2000 years after His birth, He would have done so in 94 or 95.

2) More importantly, they are mistaken, because they fail to listen to Jesus' clear words in our text: "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." No person, or even angel, can predict the day of Jesus return. In fact, Jesus even tells us that as He was walking this earth in our place, He even chose not to know the day on which He would return. So how could any person now possibly know?

Yet, even though we can't know when Jesus will return, we listen to Jesus' words in our text and hear Him speak with great certainty about His return. And, therefore we know that He certainly will return. We know that God's got a master calendar and He's got the last day marked on it.

II. How About You?

So, God's got His master calendar marked. How about you?

To be sure you can't mark the last day of world on it. Nor can you even mark your last day on it. But, even though you don't know your last day or the world's last day, you can mark your calendar with dates that will prepare you for when that unknown date comes.

•You can start by looking at your calendar in advance each week and figuring out when you're going to go to church that week. Maybe one week it works better to go Wednesday or Saturday evening instead of Sunday. That doesn't really matter. But, we want to make sure that we marked down one of those times to get to church, because we know that hear our Savior speaks to us through His Word. Here He gives us Himself in the Lord's Supper. And through His Word and Holy Supper He prepares us for the unknown date of His return or your death.
•Next we can look at St. Mark's master calendar for dates on which Bible studies are offered and then we can mark those dates on our calendars, because a study of God's Word with fellow Christians prepares us for Jesus return.
•If the Lord has recently blessed you with a newborn, or if He soon will bless you with a newborn, we can look at our master calendars and to the best of our abilities mark down the date of the child's Baptism. We want to do this, because we know that it's through Holy Baptism that Christ will prepare our children for His return by making them His children.
•Still, further, we can look at our weekly schedules and make sure to mark down time for your family to spend together reading the Bible. We can schedule time for home devotions or just time to talk with each other about God's promises and how He's keeping His promises to us or how He's seeing us through some of the difficulties we're facing.

God's got a master calendar! Although He has revealed to us the last day on His calendar, He's got it marked! May His love move us to mark our own master calendars with days that will prepare us for the day that He's got marked down. Amen.